Reprove me not as though reckless, because I dare be Your servant, even a good one and not only useless and wicked, and so most especially because You, our omnipotent God, terrible and greatly to be feared, do I praise, bless, and adore without contrition of heart and a font of tears, without the owed reverence and trembling .

If even angels adoring and praising you tremble, replete with marvelous exultation, I a sinner–so long as I attend you, speak Your praises and offer You sacrifices–why am I not frightened in heart, pallid in face, quivering in lips, a-tremble throughout my body, even as with upwelling tears before you I grieve without ceasing?

Wretched me, how hardened is my heart that my eyes do not ceaselessly produce rivers of tears while a fellow servant converses with its Lord, man with God, creature with Creator, who was made from the mud with Him who made all things from nothing?

“Pierce,” I beg, “my flesh with your fear” (Ps. 119:120); my heart will be gladdened, “that your name may be feared” (Ps. 84:11). May my sinner soul fear you, just as that holy man who said: “Ever indeed as if billows swelling over me have I feared God” (Job 31:23). Indeed Giver of All Goods, God, grant to me among Your praises at the same time a font of tears with purity of heart and jubilation of mind, so that perfectly loving You and worthily praising You, in the very palate of the heart I may taste a flavor and savor how sweet and pleasant You are Lord, just as it is written:

“Blessed those who dwell in your home, Lord, into eternity shall they praise You” (Ps. 82:5).

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Some notes for later:

[et ideo valde maius quia…sigh. I am torn between two renderings even after thinking it through. EITHER it is introducing “most especially why” God is reproving me–because I dare to praise-bless-adore without the necessary compunction OR it looks back to the reproving and I have to get started on the praise-bless-adore even though I lack the necessary compunction. I strongly favor the first but I cannot feel certain in it.]

[The will-want-wish words in Latin always make for trouble in translating to English since we also use will as a modal. I refuse to translate volo as wish or want, however. We also get to see how Latin doesn’t mind leaving out direct objects. In English it would sound more correct to switch over to something like “I am willing but not able…”]

[universa enim…Even the pains and the sorrows of falling short and knowing we fall short are part of God’s mercy. First step to being healed!]

[dum conservus…There’s a funny choice here with conservus. I’ve chosen the straightforward rendering, which expresses something a little conceptually convoluted (the parts of the whole person are being personified as individual servants). The alternative is to make the syntax a little convoluted so that the concept is more straightforward–“while, a servant, it converses with its Lord.”]

[paternis auribus…I might make this a big ol’ post on its own, since I had to run down some other examples of this phrase to give it a sensible rendering. The options appear to be saying something in public or to one’s father, metaphorical or biological. For one sample reference from the Google-fu, check out this old homiletic aid from Hugo de Prato Florido, OP, Concionum de sanctis, 1617, p. 229 (second homily for Epiphany): “Qui autem sine sancto desiderio orat est sicut aes sonans aut cimbalum tinniens, quod in auribus hominis resonat, sed nihil dignum vel gratum in divinis auribus personat. Sed cum Spiritum Sanctum interius pulsantem accipimus, audacter in paternis auribus personamus.” He immediately quotes Romans 8 after this (spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba, Father!), which seems to give the sense.]

[confige, quaeso…I stumbled for a bit thinking sapiam was a noun appositive to gustem. Derp. Even after the fix, though the grammar is obvious, the render into English is a little weird. Taste a taste and taste that…]